Why I Joined Operation Code

I am participating in a fun little blog event called Blogging Monday with some team members from the Operation Code community. This week’s topic is our inaugural – and quite appropriate – topic, ‘Why I joined Operation Code?’ posted by Mr. Bob Roberts.

To answer this question, I need to answer why I got into coding. I am currently an administrative assistant; it is a job I am good at, however not a job that fulfills me. At the time, I was miserable; I’m not yet 30 but I have hit my pay ceiling, I dislike/am not good at customer service, and I loose 10 hours a week commuting. So, I started taking ‘what job should you have’ surveys, looking at jobs for introverts, jobs for my Meyers-Briggs type, etc. And all of them listed ‘web developer’. I’m not quite religious; I consider myself spiritual (a different blog post for a different day). This was one of those, “Ok God. I get it.” moments.

So, I went looking for free learning resources to start getting up to speed on web development. I also started some soft networking; mentioning it in my skills on LinkedIn, asking folks I knew in the tech industry for hints/tips, and I also joined a topic on Rally Point for web development. Maybe a week after I joined that topic thread, one of the OpCode founders had posted a link to Operation Code.

Operation Code is a community that helps veterans and their families with mentorship and resources to enter the tech field, whether is is web development, security, app development, and all things tech. We have members who do just about everything.

Basically, I had found my people. So, I made an account, joined the Slack team, introduced myself… and they haven’t kicked me out yet.

What I love about this community is that everyone is at a different point in their career. There are all types of perspectives and questions being asked and answered. Folks are so willing to help; I have thought about quitting my job just so I can have time to read through all the resources members have shared with me (but, bills). I have almost quit my job because of the opportunities members have shared with me – and that’s that’s kind of the end goal.

I also appreciate their unending patience with my newbie questions; both truly “I don’t know what I’m doing” questions, and questions that seek deeper understanding of a topic that is only tangential to what I want to do. I also love how everyone wants to be a community: I am involved in developing an app with a team of OpCode members, we have started this Blogging Monday thing, someone mentioned going through a book together once it’s released, there’s opportunities for members to help on the website, we don’t ostracize members who aren’t vets, and there are channels for just about everything.

In hindsight, it was a good impulse click.
So, go visit Operation Code, snoop around, and donate if you can.

About K. MacLeod

Kelly MacLeod is an administrative assistant looking to hop into a web development career. Admin life is nice, but having already reached her earning potential way before the age of 30, it is time to look for greener pastures.